Fig, hazelnut + Pedro Ximénez cake
Makes 1 x 20cm cake
So ‘Tis the time for a light Christmas fruit cake
Pedro Ximénez, syrupy sweet, rich and extravagant, full of those Christmas flavours we associate with Christmas. A fruit cake that’s not too sweet and not too dense, a perfect cake for those summer Christmas evenings.
Ingredients
300g dried or semi dried figs
6 tbsp Pedro Ximénez sherry
250g butter
125g brown sugar
125g golden castor sugar
3 eggs
200g hazelnuts, roasted, skinned and roughly chopped
70g self raising flour
Method
Roughly slice the figs and macerate the figs in the Pedro Ximénez sherry for 2 hours or over night.
Preheat the oven to 180c and grease a 20cm cake tin lining the base with baking paper. Set aside
Using the roasted and skinned nuts. In a small food processor, process half of the nuts to a fine crumb - the same texture of ground almonds, set a side.
Using a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.
Now add 1 egg at a time, beating until incorporated.
Next add, the macerated figs and liquid, the ground halzenuts and the chopped hazelnuts and mix lightly.
Finally add the flour to the creamed mixture, ( I like to do this part by hand ) incorporating it throughly but lightly.
Transfer to the lined cake tin, smooth out the top and bake for about 50 minutes, covering the top with tin foil for the last 10 minutes to prevent darkening. The cake is cooked when a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
Rest for 20 minutes to settle, before running a palette knife around the edge and removing from the tin. Leave to cool on a wire rack.